Damian wore this Justice Coat for many years, and every time he looked down and saw those two gold stars, he would still think of that night on White Wax Island.
Mangekyō Sharingan
He still remembered the warmth of his father's blood splattered on his face, and the eyes that had met his gaze for twenty years, which, when opened at the last moment, held a Tomoe).
The One Tomoe —this was the first and last time my father used the Sharingan in his life.
Then he Awakening the Mangekyo Sharingan.
The instantaneous tearing felt like something had exploded behind my eye socket, ripping the whole world into something else entirely.
The pain doesn't come from the eyes; it comes from somewhere deeper than the eyes, harder than the bones, more central than the heart. You can't find it there, but you know it's cracked.
He gained two special abilities.
The left eye is "Ame-no-Tokotachi".
Everything in his line of sight could be frozen in place—cannonballs, bullets, swords, water droplets, fallen leaves, and dust—as long as he wanted, they would stay in place, like insects in amber.
Living beings can also be frozen, but the eye power consumed increases exponentially; the stronger the target, the more power is consumed.
His right eye is "Takemikazuchi".
An invisible slash released within the field of vision, a physical entity formed from the pupil's own power, is invisible, silent, indiscriminate in distance, and unpredictable; its power is directly proportional to the pupil's power consumed.
Ame-no-Tokotachi rendered all ranged attacks meaningless in his presence, while Takemikazuchi turned all melee combat into slaughter.
He has come this far thanks to these two abilities, Uchiha Style Swordsmanship, Fire Release, and the Uchiha Trading Company's covert financial support to the Navy.
Of course, besides that, his solid achievements were the key to his promotion.
He remembered very clearly what Admiral White Bird said when evaluating his "battle record" at the conferment ceremony.
"You may not have captured the most pirates, but you have captured the most great pirates."
Record.
This word brought a bitter smile to Damian's lips.
The Mangekyo Sharingan is a blessing, and everyone who pulls the trigger on it knows it's useless, but pulling the trigger is the only thing they can do.
Mangekyo Sharingan come at a price; each use consumes the user, like a candle lit at both ends—the brighter it burns, the faster it goes out.
He wasn't sure how much longer these eyes would last; he just needed to finish what he had to do before they went completely out.
A wind picked up over the sea, and a cumulonimbus cloud was forming in the distance. The bottom of the gray-blue cloud was low, and Inazuma flashed silently within its belly.
Damian looked up.
The sky was very blue, a blue unlike that of the East Blue.
The sky over the East Blue China Sea is white, and a thin layer of mist always floats at the horizon, looking like a white city wall stretching across the sky from afar.
The skies over the Grand Line are so clear that you can see the clouds drifting across the sky, one after another, like someone herding sheep overhead.
I wonder how things are at home.
As he murmured those words, his adjutant, who was walking three steps behind him, paused for a moment, then retreated back to the bridge without disturbing him.
Damian turned his gaze away from the sky and placed his right hand on the hilt of the sword at his waist.
Garp wanted him to get a top-quality naval standard knife, but Damian refused.
On one hand, his own sword was more suitable for Uchiha Style Swordsmanship; on the other hand, he constantly reminded himself that even though he had joined the Navy and even though he now carried the burden of "justice," he still had to uphold the principles of family supremacy and Uchiha supremacy.
He turned his gaze back to the sea ahead, his dark eyes reflecting the surging white waves.
--
White Wax Island.
This place name is so small on the nautical charts of the East Blue that it is almost impossible to find. A few years ago, it was just a fishing village at the easternmost end of the Konomi Archipelago, and even naval patrol ships would not make a special trip to stop there.
But the moment the Uchiha Trading Company branch was established in this small fishing village, it was already destined that it would eventually become the most prosperous place in the East Blue besides the Goa Kingdom.
Countless businessmen come here to open shops because of the reputation of "the hometown of the Uchiha".
Countless wealthy businessmen come here to buy properties, drawn by the reputation of being the "hometown of the Uchiha," as a vacation and retirement destination, simply because it is now the safest island in the East Blue, bar none.
Even with the prosperity and overcrowding of White Wax Town, it couldn't change the fact that White Wax Island was divided into three parts.
White Wax Town, White Wax Forest, and the Uchiha Ancestral Grounds.
The Uchiha Ancestral Grounds.
On the east side of White Wax Island, the entire coastal highland, along with a large White Wax Forest and a natural deep-water coastline behind it, is enclosed by a low stone wall.
That was the private territory of the Uchiha Clan, directly occupying one-third of the land on White Wax Island, and no one complained about it.
That stone wall wasn't for defense; it was only about half a person's height, and anyone with a bit of skill could easily jump over it.
Its true purpose is to tell everyone who sets foot on White Wax Island that from this place onwards, the land beneath your feet no longer belongs to any kingdom or any government.
It belongs to the Uchiha.
Inside the stone wall, a main path paved with white gravel meanders through the neatly trimmed lawns and slopes, leading to the main building of the estate.
It was a three-story white mansion, with vines climbing all over the exterior walls, reaching up to the carved balcony railing on the second floor.
In the fountain pool in front of the manor, a bronze statue with Gunbai carved on its back stands quietly in the center of the pool. Water flows down from the surface of the Gunbai and falls into the pool. It depicts Marcus working in the dock when he was young. Mila personally commissioned the most famous sculptor in the East Blue to make it.
The stables are located to the east of the main house.
White Wax Island doesn't need many horses; it has six thoroughbreds, a gift from a nobleman in the High District of the Goa Kingdom.
Although it was called a gift, it was actually compensation for the customs duties collected through the Uchiha's trade channels.
Next to the stables was a shooting range. Gray would practice shooting here every afternoon after he turned six. At the end of the range, instead of target paper, hung six pirate gold coins that Roy had casually nailed to a wooden board before he left.
To the west of the main house is a private dock.
Two sailboats were moored at the dock. One was a small speedboat that Damian had used in his early years, with its keel covered in iron. The other was a three-masted merchant ship from the West Blue, a gift from the Capone Family. The cabin had been converted into a reception room, and the deck was carpeted. The Godfather always discussed business here when he came.
A patrolman stood at the entrance to the dock, a knife at his waist and a family crest embroidered with a Gunbai on his back.
Uchiha Patrol.
The patrol force on White Wax Island is twice the size of that on other islands in the East Blue. Since the invasion of the Raging Lion Pirates, the patrol force has set up three fixed outposts within ten nautical miles of the island, with six people per shift, rotating in three shifts.
The patrol boat was a light sailing ship that Barlow imported from the West Blue. It was equipped with a small cannon at the bow and signal flares were kept in the cabin.
When the children on the island are playing on the beach, they wave at the Fan Flag when they see a patrol boat passing by in the distance.
Gwen sat by the window of her second-floor office, where she could see the patrol boats.
The office is very large; in fact, it's a suite on the second floor of the main house, in the southeast corner.
A three-meter-long black oak desk was placed by the window, its surface covered with documents and ledgers.
Three seals sat on the corner of the table: the Uchiha Trading Company's Gunbai seal, the Capone Family's Fire Pistol seal, and Gwen's personal iris seal, which Damian had commissioned to be carved the year she became pregnant.
Gwen sat in a high-backed chair, flipping through a quarterly financial report sent back from Koldo with her left hand, while her right hand held a Fountain Pen and Loguetown annotations in the blank spaces.
Her Fountain Pen was small and dense, and every number was written clearly.
The habit Gray developed that year, when she was heavily pregnant and still had to help Barlow review flight route reports, and the desk was too narrow to cover the documents, so she developed the skill of writing in small characters.
Koldo's handwriting was very large, and he always left three lines at the end to inquire about the health of Mrs. Gwen and young Master Gray, and this time was no exception.
After reading the main body of the financial report, Gwen's gaze fell on the three lines of greetings. Her lips twitched, and she wrote the word "read" below it with Fountain Pen.
Next one.
The strategist's safety assessment report on the West Blue route shows that after the annihilation of the Raging Lion Pirates, the number of pirates in the East Blue has decreased significantly, while the number in the West Blue is showing an upward trend.
The strategist added a sentence at the end of the report: The Godfather asked Gray if he had grown taller.
After writing the last annotation, she folded the document and placed it on the stack of outgoing documents to her right, then leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes.
Gwen's blonde hair was piled up at the back of her head, with a small strand falling across her left temple—something she'd missed when she woke up that morning.
She wore a dark blue long dress made of silk brought in by merchants from the West Blue, with tight cuffs for easy writing.
There is a ring on the middle finger of his left hand, on which are engraved two crossed Gunbai.
Damian gave it to her before he joined the army. He said it was Barlow's design, meaning that the place where you stand is the territory of the Uchiha.